


Wounded

by TheClassics4



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War II, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-13
Updated: 2013-01-13
Packaged: 2017-11-25 09:36:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/637516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheClassics4/pseuds/TheClassics4
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle, a field nurse in WWII, makes a connection with a wounded soldier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wounded

The day was unseasonably warm. The sky was overcast as well, giving the hot day an strangely ominous atmosphere. Belle didn’t take much notice of it; whether it was sunny or not, every day during the war was the same.

The chapel she walked to had been doubling for the hospital since a year before she’d arrived. It was an old, decrepit building, but when men were wounded, they didn’t think much on things like that.

The girls she shared a flat with trudged along silently beside her. Belle thought that they must be nice to be around. Under normal circumstances, they must have funny stories, jokes to share, men to gush over. But Belle hadn’t seen that side of them. She certainly hadn’t shown her own ‘fun’ side to anyone here. Every girl who had come had come to do a job—a job which took an emotional toll on everyone. There was no thought for joking and laughter.

The one day they did laugh was the day the announcement came. The japs had surrendered. That day, everyone smiled. They laughed and hugged and when they cried it wasn’t out of grief. Still, that day had only lasted a day. There were still soldiers being brought to them by the truckload. The prisoners were all malnourished and lucky if they weren’t afflicted with some other kind of disease.

This day was going to be no different. When they were in eyesight of the church, there was already a truck awaiting them. The nurses on the night shift were already working to unload the soldiers. The few men there helped to carry the more wounded soldiers, leaving more of the women at the truck.

Immediately, Belle set her bag down and rushed to the aid of a man trying to descend from the vehicle. He stumbled into her, muttering an apology. The clothes he wore were ratted beyond repair and he was covered in dirt, smelling like he hadn’t bathed in months. He leaned on her the entire way in to his bed.

When he finally collapsed onto the cot, his eyes immediately closed and he curled around onto his side, hugging the pillow under his face. Belle reached out and rubbed his shoulder. He didn’t seem to notice that she’d touched him and, remembering she was still needed, Belle hurried back outside.

Luckily, that was the only truck to arrive that day. Belle was assigned by the head nurse, Regina, to find out as many of their names as possible. She started at the back, working her way to the front of the church. Most of the men she could barely hear and had to ask two or three times to repeat it.

Belle came to the man she’d helped in earlier. He hadn’t moved and she put a hand on his shoulder again. This time, he tensed and she came around to kneel in front of him. His eyes were wide and frantic and Belle tried to rub his arm comfortingly.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?”

He licked his chapped lips before answering in a rasped voice, “Gold.”

“Gold. Do you have a first name?” she asked, but he only shook his head, repeating the name. “Okay.” Giving his shoulder another squeeze, she stood and moved on to the rest of the men.

“Belle,” Regina came hurrying toward her, carrying a large bucket. “These new men need to be bathed.”

“Um…me?” Belle asked, as Regina shoved the bucket to her.

“Who else?” she asked, gesturing around at the room. Every nurse was already preoccupied. There was a man in the corner who’d opened up his stitches, another two across the room who were vomiting blood on their beds. The other girls were handing out food to the emaciated men.

Why she chose to return to Gold first, she couldn’t have guessed. She’d spent no more time with him than she had with the other men, but she went to him anyway. Still, he lay curled in the same position, but his eyes watched her set the bucket down beside him.

“Do you think you could sit?” she asked quietly. When he didn’t answer, she slipped her arm under him anyway. He didn’t protest and let her lift him away from the cot. “Let’s get this off,” she said, pulling at the collar of his tattered shirt. He watched her hand before meeting her eyes. “For a bath?”

Nodding, he lifted his arm, allowing her to pull him free of the material. For the moment, she left his pants on and dipped her washrag in the soapy bucket. The moment the wet rag touched his skin, he closed his eyes and Belle wasn’t sure if it should mean he was enjoying it, or if it pained him.

Dirt and blood mixed together as she gently scrubbed his back. He slumped forward onto his knees when her motions pushed into him. She froze. He was still breathing, but still, she caught Mary’s eye and waved her over. “He’s weak,” Belle explained.

Nodding, Marry dished out a bit of the stew and knelt to feed it to him as Belle continued to wash him. Gold slowly took the soup into his mouth and even more slowly swallowed it. Belle watched him, her hands moving to his arms. His muscles were stretched taut under his dry, tanned skin.

There was still more than half a bowl left for him to consume when she’d finished with the upper half of him. Mary seemed not to notice her hesitation, not even looking up when Belle knelt beside her at his feet. She would leave his pants on, she decided, and scrub as far up as she could reach.

He tensed only a little when she reached the rag up his pant leg, glancing at her as he mulled the stew about in his mouth. Belle didn’t meet his eyes, but concentrated instead of the task she needed to get done. She couldn’t focus on where her hand was or what her knuckles might have accidentally grazed. It was a job to get done and nothing else.

Mary left them as Belle started to work on his other leg. She could feel him watching her and when she chanced a look up at him, he smirked at her. His face still looked incredibly tired and weak, but the food seemed to have done him good.

“You don’t want me to strip the rest of the way?”

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Belle said, barely able to keep her smile away. Was he flirting with her? It had been a very long time since she had had such conversation with a man. His tired smile gave her a giddiness she hadn’t felt in years.

“You sure?”

“Well, if you really want to,” Belle tossed the rag into the bucket, “but I’ve finished. So you’d just be naked in front of all these men.”

“But you’d be here too.”

“Do as you see fit, but, uh, I’m afraid I have other men to attend to.”

“Right,” he said, his smile fading slightly and Belle regretted her choice of words. She didn’t want him to think she was not interested in him, because she could already tell she was.

“Now, lay back.” He obeyed her as she eased him back and when he was on the pillow, she leaned down and kissed his forehead. When she pulled back, his smile had returned. Winking at him made him even more smug and the rest of the day, if she ever looked at him, he watched her, for the first while. Soon he fell asleep and she finally felt all her concentration could go into her job.

It was almost ten minutes to the end of her shift when Ashley came rushing over to her. Belle could tell she was trying not to cry, her skin had patches of redness and when she took Belle’s hand she was shaking.

“What is it?” Belle asked as Ashley led her outside and she finally let her tears out. She slumped against the wall, still clutching Belle’s hand.

“It’s Sean,” she sobbed, covering her eyes with her free hand.

“What happened?”

“He—” she only shook her head, “Belle, I hate to ask but could you take my shift tonight? I’ll only be gone until morning.”

“I…” Belle knew she would accept, but she dreaded it. She’d already been awake since early that morning. Still, she nodded, “Of course.”

Ashley threw her arms around her, crying for a long moment into her shoulders before scurrying away. Belle returned, her eyes going straight to Gold’s bed. He slept on. It didn’t look like a peaceful sleep, but enough that he could get some rest from it.

The night shift wasn’t usually as hectic as the day and Belle knew she would be sitting most of the night. As long as she stayed alert enough for someone calling her, she could doze all she wanted. Other night nurses began to arrive and she passed them the list of names she’d acquired. The list had been added to, each man’s name now had another word or two describing what ailed him.

When she was left, she chose to sit close to the front door. Gold slept a few beds away from her chair and she gazed at him while she drifted.

A pointed scream shattered her peaceful rest and when she snapped awake, she saw Gold thrashing in his bed. His screaming had awoken other patients, who reacted just as violently.

“Sh,” she hushed as she sat next to him. He screamed again at her striking out with his fist. Another nurse, one Belle had never seen, had come to her aid and was restraining his arm.

“Gold!” she called, running a hand through his hair, “Gold!”

And suddenly, he was awake, no longer writhing but still just as frantic. Tears had started streaming down his cheeks and when the nurse released him, he curled into her. His arms wrapped around her waist, bending his legs up to meet her. She stroked the back of his head, his face buried in the side of her leg. “Sh, it’s okay.”

“Don’t leave,” he whimpered, his grasp on her tightening.

“No,” she said, and bent as far as she could to kiss him. She could only reach his shoulder, but he nodded, “I’m not going anywhere.”


End file.
